Method and device for automatically issuing information using a search engine

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method and a device for automatically providing information by means of a search engine, in which information sought, together with other associated attributes, is stored in the form of data records. The invention provides for inquiry of search arguments for several attributes stored in a data record; comparison of the search arguments which have been input with search arguments stored; selection of a number of hits of stored search arguments which correspond to, or most closely approximate, the respective search argument that has been input, for each of the search arguments input; weighting of the selected search arguments with scores, which weighting indicates the probability with which the respective selected stored search argument agrees with the actually input search argument; selection of suitable data records from the database by means of the selected number of hits; weighting of the selected data records with overall scores which indicate the probability of the respective selected data record agreeing with the actually input search arguments, depending on the scores of the individual selected search arguments; and output of the data record with the highest overall score.

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and a device for automatically providing information by means of a search engine, in which information sought, together with other associated attributes, is stored in the form of data records.

[0002] In the field of telecommunications, large quantities of information, e.g. relating to telephone numbers of desired call partners, have to be handled. As a rule, the telephone numbers of possible call partners together with further attributes of such partners, e.g. family name, given name, company name, country, locality, postal code, street and/or house number, are stored in the search engine. Due to the multitude of possible call partners, several of these additional attributes have to be determined and interlinked in order to be able to determine the desired call partner. Up to now, this complex process has required human input in order to arrive at sensible information results.

[0003] It has already been proposed that individual steps in providing information be automated. In this context, for example printed publications U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,181,237, 5,185,781, and 5,163,083 propose that manual connection as is still common in the USA, be replaced by an automatic process for switching through. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,303 describes a semi-automatic method for providing information in which search arguments entered by a caller, e.g. name, locality, etc. are first recorded and then in a compressed form are conveyed to a person providing information so as to reduce the time it takes that person. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,488 describes a method and a device which, by means of a speech recognition device, queries various attributes of a desired call partner such as locality and name, so as to determine the telephone number of the desired call partner. In order to reduce the ambiguities generated by automatic speech recognition, the telephone number of the person seeking the information is recorded, and by means of this telephone number, the locality of the person seeking the information is determined, and subsequently, based on statistical considerations, the region to be searched for the desired call partner, i.e. the respective data quantity, is limited. This approach is however necessarily disadvantageous if call partners are sought who are outside the assumed geographic distribution rules.

[0004] It is thus the object of the present invention to create a fully-automatic method and a fully-automatic device for providing information of the type mentioned in the introduction, which method and device avoid the disadvantages of the state of the art and advantageously improve the state of the art.

[0005] In relation to the method, according to the invention this object is met by a method according to claim 1. In relation to the device, said object is met by a device according to claim 14. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

[0006] The invention is based on the recognition that an unambiguous result can be achieved with an ambiguous search inquiry to the search engine based on the limited quantity of actually existing database entries, in spite of the ambiguous inquiry.

[0007] First of all, by means of a suitable inquiry device, search arguments for several of the attributes stored in a data record can be queried by the person seeking information. In particular, search arguments such as family name, given name or company name, locality and/or street of the desired call partner can be queried, with the person seeking information inputting said search arguments by means of a suitable input device. The search arguments which have been input are then compared to predefined search arguments stored in a suitable memory. Thereafter, for each of the search arguments which have been input, a selection from, as a rule, several possible stored search arguments is made which correspond or most closely approximate the respective search argument that has been input. The selected search arguments are weighted with scores which indicate a probability with which the respective selected stored search argument agrees with the search argument which has actually been input. By means of the number of hits, which as a rule are ambiguous for the respective attribute of selected stored search arguments, suitable data records are then selected from the search engine, with the respective attributes of said suitable data records meeting the search engine inquiry. As a rule, due to the multitude of entries, there will be several of these data records. In order to arrive at an unambiguous result, weighting of the selected data record with overall scores is provided, which weighting indicates a probability of agreement between the respective selected data record and the sought data record, namely depending on the scores of the individual search arguments according to the selected number of hits. Finally, by means of a suitable output device, one or several data record(s) is/are output to the person seeking the information. The selection of the data records to be output takes place by means of the overall scores, i.e. the probability of said data records agreeing with the sought data record.

[0008] An improvement of the invention provides for a speech recognition device by means of which querying of the search arguments is carried out phonetically. The respective person seeking the information speaks the attributes such as e.g. family name, given name, street and locality of the desired call partner into the input device. The speech recognition device then converts this spoken information to suitable data which can be compared to the corresponding stored search arguments. Speech recognition offers big advantages, in particular when providing information in the telecommunications field, since usually the desired telephone number is asked for by means of the telephone.

[0009] Querying the search arguments to be entered can take place in various ways. For example it is possible by way of display control, e-mail and the like. However, the above-mentioned type of inquiry has particular advantages by means of a speech recognition device.

[0010] In an improvement of the invention, inquiry of the search arguments is carried out step by step with the use of dialog control. In particular, following the issue of a corresponding request, the search argument for each attribute of the sought data record, e.g. family name, given name, locality and street of the desired call partner is queried separately. Recognition of the search arguments from freely spoken text is also possible.

[0011] Allocation of one or several stored search arguments to the actually entered search argument can take place in various ways. An improvement of the invention provides for partitioning and dividing the relevant stored information with which the entered search arguments are compared. In particular, the stored search arguments for the individual attributes are stored in respective separate directories. In particular, a family name directory, a given name directory, a locality directory and/or a street name directory can be provided.

[0012] The comparison between entered and stored search arguments is then carried out only on the basis of the relevant directory, of which in each given case there is one. This considerably simplifies and accelerates the comparison procedure since in each case only a smaller quantity of data needs to be compared. Furthermore, better recognition quality and thus better hit probability can be achieved as only relevant stored search arguments can be allocated.

[0013] In an improvement of the invention, the search arguments which have been selected and allocated to an entered search argument from the search argument memory are weighted with an absolute score. Preferably, inquiry, comparison and weighting concerning a search argument can be repeated if the allocated absolute score would lie outside a specified score range. This can be provided at least in situations where, in relation to an attribute, the score of none of the selected search arguments is within the predefined value region, that is to say, if the probability of a hit is not adequate in any of the selected search arguments for an attribute.

[0014] In order to determine the data records which can correspond to the search inquiry, a different approach can be taken. Preferably, first the data records are selected in which all attributes meet the fuzzy search inquiry, i.e. if they contain the attributes which correspond to one of the search arguments of each number of hits of the selected search arguments. To this effect, querying the search engine is carried out in such a way that the several selected search arguments for the same attribute are subjected to an OR operation and the various numbers of hits of the search arguments for various attributes are subjected to an AND operation.

[0015] However, if no data record is found which contains all the queried attributes, then that data record can be selected which has the highest number of attributes that correspond to the query.

[0016] If too many data records are found, the list can be limited by querying further attributes. To this effect, the directories of the recognition device are preferably reduced dynamically to the number of attribute values of the data records found; this significantly increases the hit probability.

[0017] The overall scores of the selected data records can be calculated in various ways. The corresponding calculation device of the system can be configured such that the overall scores are determined by multiplying the individual scores which were allocated to the attributes of the respective data record or to the respective search arguments. However, other calculation methods are also possible. In particular, different weighting of the individual scores for calculating the overall score can take place.

[0018] In order to reduce the complexity of the query, parts of the search inquiry can be unambiguously confirmed by the person seeking information, by way of checking in the dialog. Instead of a multitude of selected search arguments, it is then possible, for the respective attribute, to accommodate a single search argument in the search request to the search engine.

[0019] Preferably, the data record determined is output by automatic announcement. Here, for example a computer-assisted announcement unit, which is known per se, can be used, with which in telephone information systems the desired telephone numbers are announced. Output via SMS, e-mail, fax etc. is also possible.

[0020] Below, the invention is explained in more detail by means of a preferred embodiment and associated drawings. The drawings show the following:

[0021]FIG. 1 A diagrammatic representation of a device for automatically providing information, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

[0022]FIG. 2 A functional diagram which shows the sequence of providing automatic information;

[0023]FIG. 3 A hit list of selected search arguments for a search example;

[0024]FIG. 4 A list of selected data records for the search example according to FIG. 3;

[0025]FIG. 5 A query to the search engine, which query has been generated from the number of hits;

[0026]FIG. 6 A functional diagram which shows the sequence of automatically providing information in the case of too many data records being found;

[0027]FIG. 7 A list of data records found from which no data record can be unambiguously selected; and

[0028]FIG. 8 A list of data records found with an additional attribute which makes an unambiguous selection possible.

[0029] Below, a telephone number information system according to an advantageous embodiment of the invention is explained by explaining a search for private subscribers. However, it goes without saying that a search for companies or authorities is also possible. The difference is in the number of search fields, because e.g. there is no given name, and furthermore in the increase in size in the name lists of the directories of the speech recognition device.

[0030] An incoming call from a subscriber station 1 is first accepted at the input-output device 2 which forms a telephone interface of the system. The information system 3 commences an automatic dialog with the caller to the subscriber station 1. In this dialog, the system records the individual search arguments such as e.g. family name, given name and locality of the desired call partner, and sends the spoken input to the speech recognition device 4.

[0031] First, a greeting message, if required with a brief explanation of the system, can be sent out, followed by a request to speak the locality of the desired call partner. The caller then speaks the locality of the desired call partner. This is recorded by the system and sent to the speech recognition device 4, which, from a memory 5 containing localities, then selects localities that most closely approximate the locality of the spoken locality. For this purpose, the memory 5 comprises a locality directory which stores possible localities of possible call partners. As a result of speech recognition, the speech recognition device 4 determines a word list with a number N of the most probable recognition results. The number N is a settable parameter which represents an important configuration option of the information system. In addition, the speech recognition device 4 determines a score for each of the recognition results, with said score indicating the probability with which the selected locality agrees with the actually spoken locality.

[0032] The steps: request for input, input by the person seeking information by speaking, as well as recognition of the spoken input by the speech recognition device 4 with determination of the hit list as a result with scores are subsequently repeated for all further search arguments. In the embodiment shown these are the family name as well as the given name of the desired call partner. Attributes which are not known to the person seeking information may be left out.

[0033] When the score of the recognition result of the speech recognition device 4 for the individual attributes is below a threshold value, the procedure can be repeated for this attribute. If recognition fails repeatedly, spelling recognition may be used if necessary.

[0034] For certain arguments it may be sensible to have the system confirm names which have been recognised by the speech recognition device 4 to the person seeking information. In this way the complexity of the subsequent search engine search is reduced.

[0035] At the end of the automatic dialog (FIG. 2) there are then several hit lists of the search arguments selected for the respective search attributes. If e.g. the search relates to a call partner “Hans Maier of Munich”, and the number N of the recognition-results to be accommodated in the list is N=3, the hit lists as shown in FIG. 3 may result. In the figure, the scores for the respective hits are shown in brackets behind the hits.

[0036] The computer device 6 of the information system 3 then generates an enquiry to the search engine which contains the data records with the desired telephone numbers. In FIG. 1, this search engine has the designation 7. Said search engine does not necessarily form an integral part of the system, but in the present embodiment it is shown as such.

[0037] The query to the search engine 7 contains all the elements of the hit lists which are combined with logic AND and OR operations, with all possible combinations of the selected search arguments being permuted. Thus, the resulting inquiry has the form shown in FIG. 5.

[0038] Preferably, speech recognition is undertaken such that a hit is allocated to each search argument input, even if no identical entry can be detected in the corresponding directory. A search in the directory is made for the word which most closely approximates the sound. In this way, 100% mapping of the entered search argument to the stored search arguments is obtained even in the case of a dictionary which does not contain words that rarely occur. This results in corresponding weighting of the hits found by the respective score.

[0039] The computer device 6 then sends the generated search machine request to the search engine 7 and selects all the data records which meet the search inquiry. After this, a list of the selected data records is prepared. In the search result shown in FIG. 4, a search engine enquiry of all possible combinations returned 4 existing entries. The search engine request was met by the entries “Hans Müller, Munich”, Hans Maier, Munich”, “Horst Maier, Mönchengladbach” and “Heinz Maier, Mönchengladbach”. Due to the fuzzy search engine inquiry, a result which is not unambiguous was thus obtained. This result is then analysed in a subsequent evaluation step or in a subsequent processing step.

[0040] During this subsequent processing step, possible errors or inaccuracies during the speech recognition procedure can be compensated for by comparison or calculation with the data from the existing data holdings. If e.g. a name which has been classified by the speech recognition device as having been “very well recognised” does not exist in the search engine or does not exist therein in conjunction with the further attributes, then it can be assumed that this recognition result was nevertheless not the correct one. In this case, the second-best result may for example apply.

[0041] To this effect, an overall score for the four determined data records is calculated, said overall score being shown in the right column of FIG. 4. The scores which were allocated by the speech recognition device 4 to the individual attributes of each data record or to the correspondingly selected search arguments, are multiplied with one another so that in the example of data record 1, the overall score is arrived from the product of the individual scores 0.1 and 0.05 and 0.3, namely an overall score of 0.0015. In the embodiment shown, weighting of the individual scores by additional factors does not take place. It is, however, quite possible to place greater weighting on the scores for individual attributes, e.g. for the family name.

[0042] In the embodiment shown according to FIG. 4, the resulting data record no. 2 is the data record with the highest overall score, namely 0.006. From this, the information system 3 deduces that with very high probability this is the desired entry. The information system 3 determines this although the given name “Hans” is not the best name from the list of given names which has been prepared by the speech recognition device 4.

[0043] A further example explains the treatment when too many data records have been found (FIG. 6):

[0044] During subsequent processing, several data records with almost the same score may result so that no clearly preferred data record can be selected for output. This is shown as an example in FIG. 7. In this case, a further attribute, in the present case the street name, is queried. For this purpose, the directory of the recognition device, which directory is required for this, is established during the run-time, from all street names of the data records already found. In the present example these are the street names Leopoldstrasse, Maximilianstrasse, Grillparzerstrasse, Hauptstrase and Bahnhofstrasse (compare FIG. 8). This additional inquiry and recognition of the street name makes it possible to determine an additional attribute with weighting factor for calculating the overall score. In this way, the recognition quality of the overall system is drastically improved. In the example according to FIG. 8, the data record “Hans Maier, Maximilianstrasse, Munich” is output. 

1. A method for automatically providing information by means of a search engine (7), in which information sought, together with other associated attributes, is stored in the form of data records, involving the following steps: a) inquiry of search arguments for several attributes stored in a data record; b) comparison of the search arguments which have been input with search arguments stored; c) selection of a number of hits of stored search arguments which correspond to, or most closely approximate, the respective search argument that has been input, for each of the search arguments input; d) weighting of the selected search arguments with scores, which weighting indicates the probability with which the respective selected stored search argument agrees with the actually input search argument; e) selection of suitable data records from the stored data records by means of the selected number of hits; f) weighting of the selected data records with overall scores which indicate the probability of the respective selected data record agreeing with the actually input search arguments, depending on the scores of the individual selected search arguments; and g) output of the data record with the highest overall score.
 2. The method according to the preceding claim, with querying of the search arguments being carried out phonetically by means of a speech recognition device (4).
 3. The method according to one of the preceding claims, with querying of the search arguments taking place step-by-step, for each attribute separately and/or by means of dialog control.
 4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, with several separate quantities of stored search arguments being provided according to various types of attributes, and with the comparison between input and stored search arguments for a respectively input search argument in each instance being carried out on the basis of only one of the quantities of stored search arguments.
 5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search arguments which have been selected are weighted with absolute scores, wherein, preferably, a score is specified and if the scores are outside this score range, steps a) to d) according to claim 1 are repeated in relation to the respective search argument.
 6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein by way of suitable data records such data records are selected which contain attributes which correspond to one of the search arguments of each number of hits.
 7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein, by way of suitable data records, such data records are selected which comprise the largest number of attributes which correspond to a respective search argument of each number of hits.
 8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the overall scores are determined by multiplying the individual scores which were allocated to the attributes of the respective data record or the respective search arguments, wherein preferably scores for various attributes of the respective data record or the respective search arguments are weighted individually.
 9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein for selected search arguments for one or some of the attributes a check is generated which reproduces the selected search argument for the respective attribute with the best score, and the number of hits of the selected search arguments for the respective attribute during confirmation of the check or of the respective search argument is limited to this search argument with the best score.
 10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein output of the data record according to step g) in claim 1 takes place acoustically by means of a speech reproduction unit (8).
 11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein several data records are output according to their overall scores.
 12. The method according to the preceding claim, wherein, for selecting a data record, a further attribute is queried, with preferably the entered search argument being only compared to the attribute values of the data records which have already been found.
 13. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein it is used for announcing telephone numbers.
 14. A device for automatically providing information by means of a search engine (7), in which information sought, together with other associated attributes, is stored in the form of data records, comprising an input device (2) for inputting search arguments for several of the attributes stored in a data record; a comparison device (9) for comparing the input search arguments with stored search arguments; a selection device (10) for selecting a number of hits of stored search arguments which correspond to, or most closely approximate, the respective search argument that has been input, for each of the search arguments that have been input; a weighting device (11) for weighting the selected search arguments with scores, which weighting indicates the probability with which the respective selected stored search argument agrees with the search argument that has actually been input; a selection device (12) for selecting data records from the stored data records by means of the selected number of hits; a calculation device (6) for calculating overall scores for the selected data records, which scores indicate the probability of the respective selected data record agreeing with the actually input search arguments, depending on the scores of the individual selected search arguments; and an output device (2) for outputting the data record with the highest overall score.
 15. The device according to the preceding claim, wherein a speech recognition device (4) for speech recognition of spoken input search arguments is provided.
 16. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein an inquiry device (13) is provided and configured such that the search arguments to be input are queried step-by-step, for each attribute separately, and/or by means of dialog control.
 17. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a memory (5) which is connectable to the speech recognition device (4) is provided, in which several separate quantities of stored search arguments are stored according to various types of attributes, and with the comparison device (9) being configured such that the comparison between input and stored search arguments for a respectively input search argument is carried out on the basis of only one of the stored quantities of search arguments.
 18. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the weighting device (11) is designed such that absolute scores are allocated to the selected search arguments.
 19. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selection device (12) is configured such that by way of suitable data records such data records are selected which contain attributes which correspond to one of the search arguments of each number of hits.
 20. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selection device (12) is configured such that by way of suitable data records such data records are selected which comprise the largest number of attributes which correspond to a respective search argument of each number of hits.
 21. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the calculation device (6) is configured such that the overall scores are determined by multiplying the individual scores which were allocated to the attributes of the respective data record or the respective search arguments, wherein the calculation device (6) is preferably configured such that scores for various attributes are weighted individually and/or in groups.
 22. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a checking device (14) is provided for generating a check, which in relation to a group of selected search arguments returns the search argument with the best score, and in which the selection device (10) is configured such that during confirmation of the check or of the respective search argument with the best score, the selected number of hits is limited to this search argument with the best score.
 23. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the output device (2) comprises a speech reproduction unit (8) for acoustic output of the data record.
 24. The device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein it is a telephone-number information system.
 25. A computer program product comprising program code means, stored on a computer-readable data carrier, for implementing the process steps according to any one of claims 1 to
 13. 